BIOGRAPHY OF BLESSED BENVENUTA BOJANI

                  Blessed Benvenuta Bojani

Also known as

• Benvenuta Boiani

Memorial

• 30 October

Profile

Youngest of seven daughters. She refused to play any childhood games that smacked of worldliness or vanity; by age twelve she was voluntarily wearing hair shirts and a rope belt. As she grew, the rope began to cut into her; it had to be removed, but was too embedded to be untied. She prayed over it, and it fell to her feet.

Dominican tertiary as a very young woman. Lived her entire life at home, practicing extreme austerities. Confined to her bed for five years with a serious illness, she had to be carried to daily Mass. During a Mass on the eve of the feastof Saint Dominic de Guzman, the saint appeared to her, and later in the liturgy, she was miraculously healed.

Visionary who had visits from both angels and demons; she could banish the demons by mentioning the name of Our Lady. However, hard life or no, sickness or no, visions and demonic oppression or no, she was known to be always cheerful and confident in God.

Born

• 4 May 1254 at Cividale del Friuli, Italy

Died

• 30 October 1292 at Cividale del Friuli, Italy of natural causes

Beatified

• 6 February 1763 by Pope Clement XIV (cultus confirmed)

Representation

• holding a length of rope

Prayers

Lord, you gave Blessed Benvenuta the gifts of penance, prayer and humility. Through self-denial and contemplation on heavenly things may we too live in the Spirit and find rest and glory in you, the one God. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. – General Calendar of the Order of Preachers